One of the movie world’s all-time best composers and arrangers, Lalo Schifrin, has died at the age of 93 of pneumonia. To cut to the chase, Schifrin is the composer of the Mission Impossible theme – but also hundreds of other theme tunes and soundtracks.
Schifrin came from a musical family in Buenos Aires, and later studied in Paris, playing jazz at night. He then set up a jazz band in Argentina, writing for TV. An encounter with Dizzy Gillespie led him to composing for the jazz trumpter, which brought him to the US.
He started his career writing memorable themes for TV shows and later movies such as “Dirty Harry”, “Bullitt” and “Mannix”.
“Mission Impossible” remain the jewel in his crown. The punchy brass theme is unusual in that it is written in 4/5 time, yet has remained popular since its first play. For music buffs, “Mannix” was written in 6/8 time.
Although he is clearly best known for his vigoruos jazz-based themes, Schifrin was comfortable in other styles. He notably wrote the theme and music for the stylish 1998 movie “Tango”, directed by Carlos Saura.
(Michael Leahy. Photo: Alexandra Spürk – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license)